The Mortuary Assistant is a terrifying simulation video game wherein you must spend some time with the dead and their bodies. Developed by DarkStone Digital, this 3D horror game is an atmospheric indie supernatural adventure that has you puzzling out how to embalm dead bodies properly while trying to survive strange encounters throughout your shift.

Similar to The Exorcist: Legion VR, The Mortuary Assistant features actual mortuary sciences simulation mechanics despite the creepy jump scares involved. Take note that this game is the 2021 demo and it also had a shorter prototype version way back in 2020 that was available for free. 

What is The Mortuary Assistant?

In The Mortuary Assistant, you play as the titular assistant, Rebecca Owens. After graduating with a degree in mortuary sciences, she’s been an apprentice mortician at River Fields Mortuary. Despite her concerns about not getting a full-time position, she’s elated to find that her boss has finally started trusting her more and she comes in late at night one time to cover a shift on her own.

The game is uniquely a part-story-driven horror and part-embalming simulator. Here, you must prepare for the process of embalming the bodies that need to be finished. You actually have to collect the necessary equipment and follow the instructions scattered about to finish your tasks properly. This part can be tricky—especially if you’re not familiar with embalming—but there are enough in-game tutorials and prompts to guide you in a general direction.

What’s great here is that the numerous jumpscares are actually randomized and will trigger depending on a number of factors. This makes each playthrough different and gives the game a high replay value. However, while the cutscenes are fully-voiced and Rebecca will comment on things, she doesn’t react to the strange occurrences like Ethan from Resident Evil 7—making it a bit hard to feel connected to her in first-person view.

A great demo

All in all, The Mortuary Assistant is a creepy atmospheric game that’s worth a shot. Despite being just a demo, the content you go through is randomized enough to keep things fresh and the almost real-life embalming process makes it an overall interesting experience. While the character sometimes doesn’t feel like she’s there, everything else in the game doesn’t detract from that and even hints at something about her past.